Air conditioners are devices that are useful for cooling environments or spaces. A typical air conditioner utilizes a compressor in conjunction with an evaporator coil to cycle a refrigerant through liquid and gaseous phases under controlled pressures to extract heat from air. A compressor typically requires a substantial amount of alternating current (AC) electrical power for a substantial period of time in order to operate. Often, however, individuals desire to cool environments or spaces remote from a source of standard AC electrical power. Thus, it can be appreciated that it would be useful to have an effective air conditioner that does not require substantial AC electrical power to operate. It can be further appreciated that it would be even more useful to have an air conditioner that does not require any AC electrical power and that would operate effectively in a location that is remote from standard AC electrical power.
The following are examples of known portable air-conditioning devices:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,959,032 to Davis discloses an apparatus for cooling air.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,194 to Flynn, Jr. et al. discloses a food serving and storage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,971 to Gentz discloses an auto cooler.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,202 to Hodges discloses a portable air conditioner that blows air through ice as a cooling medium in a closed container.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,483 to Kopp discloses a portable air conditioner that is essentially a fan-driven unit that fits over the top of an ice chest.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,938 to Liu discloses an air-conditioning system with portable air-conditioning unit.
U.S. Pat. No 5,636,524 to Woods, et al. discloses a porous platform for the bottom of an ice chest to keep items out of water that has collected at the bottom of the chest.
US 2007/0000277 filed by Bratcher discloses a box-like structure having three parallel compartments separated by apertured walls. Cooling material is placed in the lateral compartments and air is drawn through the central compartment.
US 2006/0225453 filed by Martello discloses a portable air conditioner that circulates cool water to what is designated in the application as an evaporator coil (but which does not appear to have the characteristics of or to function as a typical air-conditioning evaporator coil).
The above examples of portable air-conditioning devices appear to be lacking either in effectiveness or convenience of use to optimally address the problems set forth above. Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.